The purpose of this R13 proposal is a requests funds for graduate and post doctoral students to attend an international meeting called Enzymology and Molecular Biology of Carbonyl Metabolism. This will be the fifteenth meeting the applicant has organized and it will be held in Lexington, Kentucky July 6-10, 2010. The three enzyme families discussed at the meeting are alcohol dehydrogenase, aldehyde dehydrogenase and carbonyl reductase. The topics range from the physiological role of the enzymes to their involvement in cellular events. Enzyme mechanism and gene regulation are discussed as well as the role of the enzymes in drug metabolism and detoxification reactions. Graduate and post doctoral students have always attended the meeting, as has an occasional undergraduate student, where they present posters while senior scientists are invited to make oral presentations. All are invited to submit a manuscript for publication in a special edition of a journal. No funds are requested to support senior scientist as each of them have to pay their own way. Because of the difficulty in securing research support it is feared that many laboratories will not be able to send qualified students to the meeting as they have in the past. Typically 25 students have attended the meeting along with 50-60 senior scientists. If stipends are available students will be able to attend this meeting where students and senior scientists interact freely and, in the past, formed many collaborations and secured future post doctoral positions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The "Carbonyl" meeting is the only meeting devoted to this topic and most of the major scientists investigating the physiological and enzymological importance of carbonyl metabolism attend the meeting. The enzymes are involved in biotransformations, drug and xenobiotic metabolism. The purpose of the proposal is to obtain funds to support graduate and post doctoral student participation at this international meeting.